I took a swim class when I was 8 and learned how to float. Then in college I took a semester longer course and learned some very basic fundamental

Now at 36 I was looking for some kind of low impact physical outlet. I have a 4 year old and gained some weight, my joints aren’t what they used to be, and I suffered a bad concussion 2 years ago which really impacted my vestibular system

I decided to do a 3 week, 6 course at my community college and wow - I haven’t felt this great in such a long time. My body doesn’t feel like a hinderance, and while I still have so much to learn, I’m refining so many things. Plus the class is made up of folks to repeat the course over time, so the vibes were just really supportive.

The first week I was struggling to do one more lap and everyone just really rallied around me

Alls to say, I’m just really glad I found a new outlet. And now that this course is over, I’m signing up for the fall.

Hi all! Newer swim coach here. I begin coaching for a girls’ high school team in the fall, and I’ve only coached youth swimming so far. I’m nervous that my sets won’t be challenging or enriching enough for varsity high schoolers. Any advice on how to plan sets? Examples are welcome, as well as general ideas/ things to look for when planning. Also, if you have any resources that you use to plan your sets or add new things to your training regimens!! Thanks in advance :)

edit: Practices are 2 hrs long, 6 days a week with weight training/dryland 3 days a week.

Hi swimmers. I'm fairly new, and know my kick is by far the weakest part of my stroke. I "bicycle kick". I understand the problem in theory, but don't know how to fix it in execution.

Any reccomendations on drills, in or out of the water, to teach someone how kicking from the hips actually is supposed to feel.

The best I've tried so far is kicking with fins on the kickboard while focusing on pointing my toes and locking my legs straight, but I know that's not really it. either. Appreciate any advice!

I’m newish to swimming, fortunately gotten fairly competent at the main three strokes but I still go to lessons as they’re quiet. Today I decided to join in on some retrieval drills in the shallow end and loved it. Then I seen a stick in the deeper end and thought I’d try and grab it. Big mistake 🙃 I missed the first grab and tried again but must’ve snorted or something, so I surfaced but couldn’t cough. I moved to the wall whilst trying to inhale and cough but I was gasping and then it felt like a reflex of trying to breathe and gasping/wheezing. I gestured to the lifeguard who walked over a few feet and by the time she got to me I was able to vigorously cough. She didn’t seem too concerned but I was shitting myself. I won’t be trying to retrieve things again, but don’t want to obsess over the what ifs because I have very bad anxiety.

Hi I'm a 22yo girl, i swim regularly 2/3 times a week since I was like 3 years old, I'm not a professional by any means but I ​can hold my own.

After a knee injury that took me about a year to recover from I feel I'm in a good spot again, 50m free PB is 38s, which isn't good but nothing to sneeze at either.

I can consistently achieve it even if it's after an hour long practice so it feels very solid. And my practices are 2/3 kilometers that either focus on long sets or sprints plus some fun exercises.

My question is, am I good enough to join a masters club for adults and eventually compete in a very amateur level?

Edit : thank you all so much for the encouraging replies, I'll definitely email to do a try out of it. My goal would be to get to a clean 30 and I feel if I learn the dolphin kick well and start with a dive and not from the water I will.
LOVE YALL ✨💓

Just wanted to share this proud moment, been swimming most of my life.

Decided to go for a marathon swim, applied for the 26km swim in Zurich.

Due to moving in to a new house and new job i was not able to train for 7 weeks [did 4km training in total). But still.managed to finish the swim!

First kilometer was fine, the rest was on will power!

I have always loved to swim and last year (junior in high school) I joined my swim team. It was fun at first, but pretty soon it wasnt as fun. For starter I was super out of shape so it was a bit harder for me to keep up, but that wasn't the worst part. Most of the girls were nice but some of the middle school girls were not. But the thing that makes me really not want to return is my coach. He seemed like a nice guy and everybody loved him, but then one day before one of our meets, he singled me out in front of everyone and told me that I was useless to the team, because I didnt score them any points. I almost walked out right there, but there was only 1 week of swim left so I stuck it out. That really hurt especially since he said that in front of the entire team, and never apologized. Now, applications for fall sports are open and I really dont want to go back. But I also dont want to be a quitter. I was really hoping to finally have a sport I loved after trying so many different sports and getting bullied every time. Should I continue swim? Im in my final year of high school

Hi everyone. I started to do some dry land exercises, and I wanted to read your comments about weightlifting and functional training. Any suggested training to improve strength and some muscle building exercises?

I have recently got into swimming regularly. Is this a good time? I did 40 minutes of front crawl then took a two minute breather then did 10 minute of breast stroke.

I’ve been swimming everyday recently. Coinciding with my getting back into swimming, I’ve developed an annoying TMJ on my right side which is my breathing side when I swim. Now it hurts/aches a bit when I bite down or chew on something hard.

Has anyone else experienced this? I love swimming but I also don’t want to live with this or make it worse. Should I just stop swimming for a while?

Breaststroke is my preferred style for timed swim, but I'm just now starting to realize how awful I am at it :/

Whenever I kick, I slant a tinnnyy bit and go to one side. From what I can tell, either my right leg is weaker than my left, or I'm not kicking at the same time.

I'm leaning towards the weaker leg theory as I have consciously tried to kick at the same time, and my left calf is noticeably tougher in feel than my right. I'm 100% right-legged, though, as I much, much, much prefer it in soccer and such, which is confusing me.

Anyone know what the problem is and how to fix it?

I'm a guy in my 20s. Did lessons as a kid briefly but got scared when it got to the time of going in the deep-end so my parents took me out of lessons.

Now I've been doing lessons for the last 18 months every week. Mainly for water safety purposes.

My backstroke is good, I can do 50m backstroke including into the deep end. My freestyle is so-so - I still struggle with breathing a bit, so manage about 10m before I accidentally inhale water. My breaststroke isn't that great, I struggle to angle my ankles properly so my kick isn't that good, and I can manage 6 reps before I kinda start sinking.

I never really learnt how to float, and I'm so-so with treading water. Floating isn't really covered in my lessons, and I occasionally get my teacher to help me with treading water but she's pretty happy with my technique and says I just need to practice more/get more comfortable.

Now with my weekly lessons, it's gotten to the point where the stroke technique is getting more technical (which is useful - but doesn't really help me with my goal of being more confident in the water and particularly in deep water), and there isn't much opportunity to work on floating/treading water. It is useful to have a guaranteed time to go to the pool though.

So I'm considering dropping out of lessons, and just having the lesson slot remain in my calendar as "this is the time I'll go to the pool every week to practice". And do a bit of treading water practice at the end of every session, maybe dragging my partner along to help me. (Time-wise I struggle to go to the pool more than once a week, given other exercise commitments I have)

Does this sound appropriate? Or would people suggest I stick with lessons?

There are many levels for kids while adult there's usually 3 (beginner, intermediate, advanced)

New swimmer here for 1 year. Been only taking classes and occasionally free swim. In one year I managed to get freestyle/crawl correctly while backstroke/breaststroke still needs some bit of work. Right now, I am in limbo between level 2 and level 3. I am not good enough for level 3, while for level 2 (the instructor go back to the basic/crawl. I don't blame them because I was at this stage thrice before I finally understood how to crawl "recreationally").

It's weird they never made like an advanced intermediate class or have more levels.

I've been swimming for 7 years. I've slowly increased my speed over time but am feeling stuck. I've noticed that I get asthma attacks whenever I try to swim faster than 1:50/100 m, but not at a less vigourous exercise than that. I noticed this especially when doing 100 m sprints of butterfly stroke. I can manage 4 km at 2:00/100m or 3 km at 1:55/100 m. How did you overcome these issues?

(Last post got deleted because I used a photo to show my streamline and I'm guessing that's not allowed since I don't see any other posts with photos.

My shoulder mobility is horrible. With my back to a wall and without arching my lower back, when I try to streamline, my arms make a 30 degree angle with the wall.

I used to swim competitively but even back then, my streamline put my arms in front of my ears. I had to tuck my chin in to get my arms behind the ears back then. I couldn't do backstroke kick because my face would go underwater.

I want to slowly get a proper streamline. The lack of shoulder mobility is affecting me in other sports and disciplines as well including weightlifting and calisthenics.

Only stretch I know is the one where you kneel on the ground and put your hands on a chair and push your chest to the floor.

Any other tips or stretches to help me get there?

Hey guys, with ai getting more and more advanced I started using it to write my dryland workouts for swimming. I wonder if someone has ever done it before and has some success/failure stories related to that?

I've been using it for like a month now and I am progressing on a gym but obviously at this point it would probably be hard to workout constantly and not see progress so I still dont know what to truly think and how to judge it.

Title says it all. How do I keep water out of my nose during backstroke? It used to never be a problem but now is very annoying, especially when I’m sprinting. Would wearing a nose clip make me look like a total nubie?

Yup as title says

Im a high school senior with over 6 years of competitive swimming experience. I want to coach other students in my area, but im curious how much I should charge.

Im offering 1-on-1 private in-water lessons at my local pool or clients' backyards (if they have one).

Im also a pretty accomplished swimmer with Junior National time standards and am fluent in all strokes

I was also a former lifeguard and certified in like a dozen certifications from Red Cross

With all these qualifications, how much could or should i charge?

I know friends who coach (and are underquaalified than me) who charge $50/hr.

Im thinking somewhere in the 40s and will probably charge according to demand

Thanks!

Hello all. At the moment, I mainly do jiujitsu, and have been considering starting swimming to help with general fitness and conditioning. I have heard many great things and benefits for swimming, but I have also heard that over time they can put a lot of strain on your shoulders. This worries me a little as I have had a number of shoulder injuries in the past from the aforementioned bjj and also bouldering, so they are not in the best shape. With this being said, I just wanted to hear your thoughts on the subject: Is it something I should be worried about? Is swimming still a good idea to still try? I’m thinking of doing it 2-3 times a week alongside running.

Edit: Thanks for all the warning and advice! I'll look into lifejackets / vests thats good enough for Mediterranean beaches (not deep ocean with huge waves or rip currents). I'll edit this again once I'm back from vacation (hopefully safe lol)

I'm looking for a some sort of a kit or accessory to help me keep me afloat in the sea.

I know I shouldn't use one to be able to learn myself or whatever but I tried taking lessons for years and still can't keep myself above water. I can swim in waters where I can step / hold for couple seconds to breathe and continue but can't where I don't have anything to reach for.

Also I want this to be able to swim with my wife during our upcoming holiday so taking more lessons are not realistic for my timeline. Thanks in advance.

I’m taking a beginner swim class and have gone to the pool at my gym to practice on my own. It’s only 3 lanes, and the first 2 times I went there was either no one or only 1-2 other people.

But all 3 lanes were full today and I got kind of “told off” for accidentally cutting in line to be next for a lane, and when I apologized and asked what the system was they didn’t give me an answer except “wait your turn”, and then I spent 40 minutes waiting but no one got out.

So, in general, what is pool etiquette when you show up and all the lanes are full?

1. If all the lanes are busy, how do you let others know you’re waiting? And do you stake claim on one lane, or just take the next available?

2. What’s a commonly accepted amount of time to continue using the lane, if you’re not sharing, when you know someone is waiting?

3. In a gym setting, does it matter which lane I get in if lane sharing doesn’t seem to be a thing?

I appreciate any insight. Thanks!

Mods - this was edited to be broader in scope because you removed my earlier post saying it was too specific to my gym. Thanks.

Hello, I watched several 2 beat kick videos on youtube.

The videos suggest doing the kicking on different sides.

One is cross kicking meaning right hand pulling left foot kicking, the others show the same side kicking and pulling.

Which side is correct?

Personally I do the same side kicking pulling which is comfortable for me.

I have an issue with my right hand (left hand seems fine) - when swimming long distances, it gets tired of cupping water and my fingers get splayed apart more and more (especially the last 2 digits). Any exercises that I can do to keep the fingers adducted?

help im on vacation rn and i swam for like 2h with a normal t shirt and they started burning so much i had to get out is it because of my tshirt or the salt in the ocean?? im also on my period idk if that affects anything but i need a fix asap cuz i only have 2days left to swim and they still hurt even tho im out of the water